Farewell and Welcome

With this issue, Dr Sunil K Pandya retires to reach the hallowed position of Editor Emeritus. Everyone associated with Issues in Medical Ethics is aware of the invaluable contribution that Dr Pandya has made to the journal, taking it from relatively humble beginnings as the first Indian newsletter on medical ethics to a serious quarterly publication with a national and international readership. For the first few years, he brought out the journal almost single handedly, with clockwork regularity despite heavy work commitments in a government teaching hospital, involving dozens of senior medical professionals in the process. His devotion to the journal is a mirror of his devotion to the cause, it stands for, both as an individual doctor and as a representative of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society. We look forward to Dr Pandya’s continued participation in the affairs of FMES/IME.

If we will sorely miss Dr Pandya’s retirement, we welcome as our new Editor another activist who has fought for the same causes for most of his professional life, but as a private practitioner. Dr Arun Bal’s association with FMES also dates back to the panel of doctors whose unsuccessful bid in the Maharashtra Medical Council elections on a platform of ethical practice led to the setting up of a journal to promote ethics in medical practice. In addition to his long-standing work in the consumer movement, Dr Bal has remained closely associated with the journal all these years. The editorial board looks forward to this new, closer association with Issues in Medical Ethics.